Bailiff advice?

[2girlssoon]

Sorry I know this is the wrong thread but I’m worried out of my mind and this is the most popular one, please feel free to move my thread if it isn’t in guidelines.
Just wondering if anyone has any knowledge or advice -

I received a parking ticket a long time ago and in short I’m now being chased for £500 by a bailiff working on behalf of the council. I’m a single mum to a toddler and I’m also pregnant. I genuinely could not afford to pay the ticket even at £60 so I’ve buried my head in the sand I will admit. I obviously have no funds to pay it as I’m on universal credit and after my rent is paid I genuinely only just about scrape food and bills.
The bailiff knocked before Christmas and said he wants the payment in full by the 27th jan (yesterday) or he would come back for my car. He’s been messaging me via WhatsApp today saying he will be attending my property in the morning.

Now my question is that for this very reason i have changed my v5 and registered the car to a different keeper at a different address but I still insure the car and drive it. It is taxed by the new keeper (a friend) It’s currently on a public road outside of my house. Can the bailiff still seize the car? What kind of proof can I provide that I “don’t own” the car? Or should I just hide it somewhere?

If anyone can advise the best thing to do I would be so grateful as I’m so stressed at the moment! It’s not that I don’t want to pay the debt as I accept it’s my debt and would be happy to make small monthly payments but the bailiff won’t accept this.

I’m wondering if the reason he didn’t just clamp the car last time he came to my house is that he saw it was no longer registered to me? However he rang me straight after threatening that he would soon be taking the car if payment wasn’t made by the end of January. I will be speaking to citizens advice online in the morning but just wanted your opinions first

www.gov.uk/your-rights-bailiffs

The V5 is the registered keeper not the owner of the car, if you can’t prove that you don’t own the car then they can seize the vehicle and you have 7 days to prove you don’t own it.

Have you appealed the ticket? Done a statutory declaration? Called the council to work out a payment plan?

Unfortunately if you don’t want your car to be taken you need to move it far away from your house as they will search the surrounding area

You need to discuss a way to pay the debt off with them, surely?

Hide the car or have the person that owns it come over with the paperwork to prove it is not yours.

All you can do is offer to pay in installments. The Baliffs can't get blood out of a stone. If you don't have to money to pay it in full then they will have to take installments.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-n245-application-for-suspension-of-a-warrant-and-or-variation-of-an-order

You need to provide the original v5 showing that to someone else. They cannot remove anyone else’s property.
They cannot come on to your property unless invited, or find an open window or door to get in!

I’m assuming that the sameCouncil that issued the ticket and warrant, are paying your UC and housing benefit!

If so, call the car penalty office first thing and advise of this, there are rules about them putting you into “ financial hardship” remember that phrase, ask them to either write the debt off, or accept 50p a month for the next 10yrs, which will cost them too much to collect! They will have the facts of your income so that should leave you with not a lot more to do or say.
Might be worth texting the fella back telling him what you’re doing and stating that the car is not yours! But they can look that up in the office! Oh! And go and park it somewhere else!
Get everybody name, date and time everything!
Good luck

Rather than messing around with the car why not present him or the office with income and expenditure details. He will have seen it all before, people re register their car all the time in this situation.

You're simply delaying sorting it out

Is it an actual bailiff or a debt collection agency pretending to be bailiffs?

Do you know if this was taken to court? You can only use n245 if there is an actual warrant that's been issued by a court.

The time you’ve spent doing all of that you could have been calling the council, the court, the debtors or even cab why are you only calling them now?! If this ends up before a judge it’s really not gonna look good on your part or help your case that there’s evidence you’ve gifted a car to a friend when you were court ordered to pay a debt... sorry

There needs to be a transaction between you and the new owner to prove purchase or they will laugh at you. People try that all the time they know how to catch you in a lie.

Contact the council and try and arrange a payment plan with them.

He said he is working on behalf of the councils enforcement department so I don’t think it’s from the court. He gave me the link to pay online which is for the councils official website or an automated phone line. I want to text him and explain that I can’t pay but what do I even say?
I was thinking
Hi mr (name)
I just wanted to make you aware that I currently don’t have the funds to pay this fine in one transaction
This is my income and expenditure. Paying this fine would put me in financial hardship and at risk of eviction as I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent.
I am also a vulnerable person as I have a young child and am pregnant. I can afford x amount per month (would probably only be about £20 a month?? Would he laugh at me for this?)
I have no goods for you to take as the vehicle to which the pcn was issued was sold in July 2019 and I do not own anything else of value.

Any good?

Bailiffs generally want to get a deal done.
However, they may well want a down payment too.
You shouldn’t have buried your head in the sand and you won’t get away with it.
I’m not going to help you break the law by telling you to hide your car , even though you have deliberately altered its status, but you really need to learn from this.
You should have tried to pay, or negotiate to pay, the fine at the time.
Lesson learned.

How much do you need the car? Do you live in a rural area? Could you sell it for money to pay this bill? Otherwise a debt relief order might be the way forward for you but that takes a few weeks and you'll have to hide the car from the bailiffs during that time I guess.

I contacted the council when I first received the enforcement letter and explained all of this (my income and expenditure, the fact that I have a child etc etc) and they just wrote back to say I would need to contact the bailiff. However he won’t accept a payment plan. So I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do? Also the councils parking charges department don’t take incoming phone calls so I can only email or write to them. I emailed them in November and only received their letter of response today. So I don’t think it will do me any good contacting the council.

offer less than £20 if you can't afford it, don't estimate work out how much, and how much you will have when baby comes. You can offer £1 as a goodwill gesture until you financially able to give more.

No real advice but be aware every time a baliff shows up its an extra £235 added ontop of the debt. I only know this because a baliff was in my home last month and it said on the letter he left me.

Contact the council and arrange for them to take a nominal sum directly from your benefit. I think they usually do this at the rate of £2-3 a week. This should prevent any further bailiff action.

I’m actually on an iva plan (Ex left me with heaps of debt) and this pcn was received before the iva started so I have emailed them and asked if they could cover it in my plan. Not relying on it but worth a try.

I don’t think they’re allowed to refuse a payment from you... my understanding is/was that if you can’t afford the full shebang & they’re threatening you, just start paying them something anything off the debt - irrespective of if this is an amount pre-agreed by them - (obviously vis traceable means and not cash!)

But then you can prove that you are accepting of the debt and taking tangible action to clear it by paying sums toward it, that this means you have a case/defence against them if it escalates, so I would advise start paying the sum you’re proposing eg £20 (or any nominal amount)

Hopefully if that’s out of date advice someone will correct me (this was a while ago)

Good luck OP it’s scary but it’ll be okay. Keep the car a safe distance until they accept an agreement.

A v5 does not prove ownership! Changing the v5 only changes who the car is registered to, and unless you have proof of sale, a receipt from a garage, or a bank statement with "car purchase" as the reference to monies being paid into your account for example, then I don't know how you could stop enforcement action...

I work for a debt collection agency.

Contact a debt helpline such as stepchange who can help you put together an income and expenditure form detailing what you can afford each month to pay off the debt.

Good luck x

I would image he probably checked out the registered owner and whether there was finance outstanding on your car when he first visited.
He knew then it was your car and as such could have taken it then to offset your debt. It will have been recorded as an asset then but he gave you till the 27th to either come up with the money or they would take your asset.
Right now as far as he's concerned the car is still yours and you are now trying to pull the wool over his eyes by changing the keeper. If you had sold the car he has every expectation that you to hand over the money you made from it.

Phone step change. They are really helpful in this sort of scenario and will give you step by step instructions on how best to deal with it without landing yourself in further shit x